|
Cheat.dat Problems (SOLVED)
#344154 - 08/18/15 03:35 PM
|
|
|
Well, I'm having trouble with Cheats. I noticed in my build of .160 Mame+ that cheats weren't showing up in-game. It's been ages since I updated the cheat files, so went and grabbed a new Cheat.dat.
Trouble is - that still didn't work. It was a cheat.7z file that I saved in the Mame folder. I understand you don't have to unzip it. The funny thing is, my old cheats ARE unzipped, and if I point it to that folder, the cheats come back. So I tried to unzip the new one, and I get an error (using Winzip 19.0).
I thought the Zip might be corrupt, so I grab it from a different site..... same thing, no Cheats, and won't unzip. I've enabled it in the UI. The file is there, but won't allow me to unzip it......
Anyone got any ideas?
|
|
|
Tafoid |
|
I keep on testing.. testing.. testing... into the future!
|
|
|
|
|
Reged: 04/19/06
|
|
Posts: 3135
|
|
Loc: USA
|
|
|
|
Send PM
|
|
|
Re: Cheat.dat Problems
[Re: Vaughan]
#344155 - 08/18/15 04:33 PM
|
|
|
> Well, I'm having trouble with Cheats. I noticed in my build of .160 Mame+ that cheats
> weren't showing up in-game. It's been ages since I updated the cheat files, so went
> and grabbed a new Cheat.dat.
>
> Trouble is - that still didn't work. It was a cheat.7z file that I saved in the Mame
> folder. I understand you don't have to unzip it. The funny thing is, my old cheats
> ARE unzipped, and if I point it to that folder, the cheats come back. So I tried to
> unzip the new one, and I get an error (using Winzip 19.0).
>
> I thought the Zip might be corrupt, so I grab it from a different site..... same
> thing, no Cheats, and won't unzip. I've enabled it in the UI. The file is there, but
> won't allow me to unzip it......
>
> Anyone got any ideas?
"Cheat.dat" is the old style cheat database which is only used up through 0.126 or so. This format is an "all in one file" type text file. The current cheat engine uses XML and is compressed with 7-zip to read the cheats and must find match them though the name of the .xml. By keeping the cheat.7z intact, the system will consider that the cheat folder (keeping it in the same folder as your EXE file).
In short, the .DAT file will not function on MAME versions 0.126 or later. If you are getting any cheats at all to show on a later build, it is from your cheat.7z archive, not the .dat file. Given there are over 30k files inside the folder, it is highly suggested you keep them in that container which MAME considers a folder.
|
|
|
|
Re: Cheat.dat Problems
[Re: Tafoid]
#344157 - 08/18/15 08:00 PM
|
|
|
Yeah, I was clear as mud there.
Sorry, I think of it as Cheat.dat because I'm old, and can't keep up with myself.
I am using the correct file though - I gotr it from here:
http://www.mamecheat.co.uk/
However, the file I got (the latest) doesn't seem to work at all. I
As I wrote earlier, I previously (back on 0.149) unzipped the cheats into a folder. If I point at that things are okay, but this updated file (and another I tried) just do nothing.
|
|
|
| Tafoid |
|
I keep on testing.. testing.. testing... into the future!
|
|
|
|
|
|
Reged: 04/19/06
|
|
Posts: 3135
|
|
Loc: USA
|
|
|
|
Send PM
|
|
|
Re: Cheat.dat Problems
[Re: Vaughan]
#344159 - 08/18/15 08:54 PM
|
|
|
> Yeah, I was clear as mud there.
>
> Sorry, I think of it as Cheat.dat because I'm old, and can't keep up with myself.
>
> I am using the correct file though - I gotr it from here:
>
> http://www.mamecheat.co.uk/
>
> However, the file I got (the latest) doesn't seem to work at all. I
>
> As I wrote earlier, I previously (back on 0.149) unzipped the cheats into a folder.
> If I point at that things are okay, but this updated file (and another I tried) just
> do nothing.
Follow these steps:
1) Get the "cheat0163.zip" from the above site.
2) Inside that downloaded archive which you should be able to open with Windows Compressed Folder (.zip) support is a file called "cheat.7z". Copy this from the .zip and extract it as cheat.7z into the same folder which your mame.exe/mameui.exe resides.
EXAMPLE [c:\mame - containing mame.exe and cheat.7z]
3) Ensure that your cheatpath is pointing to "cheat" by checking the output of: mame -showusage | find "cheatpath"
MAME considers archives as folders, so the cheat.7z folder is the same as a "cheat" subfolder and it considers it, following the example above [c:\mame\cheat]. Make sure at least the entry "cheat" is showing for cheatpath.
4) Start MAME with the -cheat trigger and the cheat menu should show for any games which have available cheats.
You can extract all the individual .xml files into a folder and point to that folder if you need to, just make sure the folder you create for them is part of cheatpath. In the end if you don't make cheats, it is much easier and much less space usage to keep them compressed in cheat.7z
|
|
|
|
Re: Cheat.dat Problems
[Re: Tafoid]
#344165 - 08/18/15 11:25 PM
|
|
|
Thank you for your response.
Being a Windows user, I don't use command line Mame at all. instead I use a front end - of which I have three different ones.
The oldest frontend I have is for version .149, the newest .160.
It's strange. I am using the .160 interface right now. I have everything checked in the UI (enable cheats). I have the path set. The file is in place, but no cheats show up.
Now, I have an old set of cheats, from .149 era - and they are unzipped into a folder. If I point the UI at that - all cheats show up.
I want to be up-to-date, and if need be I would unzip this new file into a folder. But whenever I try to unzip the XML files from this new ZIP it expands the first file, and then crashes out saying there's an error (this is with Winzip 19.0.) In other words, I can browse the .7z file, but not unzip it all.
I suppose Cheats haven't changed very much... it is very strange though.
|
|
|
|
Re: Cheat.dat Problems SOLVED
[Re: Vaughan]
#344167 - 08/18/15 11:59 PM
|
|
|
Okay - I finally solved this problem.
Before I start, please don't laugh at me to much. 
I took this opportunity to really clean up my Mame installs, so everything was put into neat folders, all nicely named.
Now the solution for me.......
When you install a frontend, the DIRECTORIES settings all point to things like CHEAT and CPANEL, without any paths given. this is obviously because it assumes they're folders off the place when the executable is run.
Part of my Mame install is that I didn't want to duplicate a lot of files. So I have a common SNAPSHOT folder for instance, shared amongst all the frontends. It's a simple matter to set up, you just change the entry for SNAPHOTS in the directory setup, explicitly pathing it to the central location.
And there - ladies and gentlemen - you have the root of my problem. When I had a folder of unzipped cheat XML files, I simply pointed the CHEAT folder to this central location. Everything worked.
Now, today I downloaded a new set of Cheat XML files, and I placed the CHEAT.7z file in the root of the application folder. I then changed the path in the frontend to point to that folder.
THIS DOES NOT WORK. You get no cheats.
Sitting here going over things, and over things, and over things, I started to wonder about something I'd read in this thread. "By keeping the cheat.7z intact, the system will consider that the cheat folder".
Hm, I don't have a CHEAT folder. I've NEVER had a CHEAT folder, other than my central one. It got me thinking.... Mame will use the CHEAT.7z file as though it were a CHEAT folder - but I'm pathed to the folder containing the file, not the file itself.
I tested it. I created a CHEAT folder, which is empty. I pointed the CHEAT directory at it. I then DELETED the CHEAT folder. I wanted to know if Mame, not pathed to a folder called CHEAT that wasn't actually there, would instead pick up the CHEAT.7z file and use it instead.
And indeed, that worked.
I hope this makes sense to everyone. Sorry to make such a rookie error, but this seems a little counter-intuitive. At least to my brain. But at least I finally was able to hear the ball drop. 
Thanks again for your help.
|
|
|
|
Index 
Threaded 
Cheat.dat Problems (SOLVED)
Reply
[Re: 
